Not Applicable.
The present invention relates generally to chafing dishes and the means of heating such chafing dishes. Specifically, the present invention relates to a removable electric heater that is suspended by hanging assemblies on a typical frame of a chafing dish, and provides thereby a contiguous heat transfer surface to the bottom of a resting chafing dish, for food or beverage warming.
A chafing dish, chafing pan, or chafing dish is a portable container for warming, presenting, and serving a food or beverage. Chafing dishes are widely used in food service establishments, restaurants, hotels, dining halls, and in buffet service outlets. Chafing dishes offer the benefit of keeping a food or beverage warm for prompt and appetizing consumption, allow for attractive and immediate access to prepared food or beverages, and allows for presentation or serving of the food or beverage in remote or isolated areas not typically set-up for food service.
Typically, a small metal can with a flammable chemical fuel heats chafing dishes. A popular brand is the xe2x80x9cSternoxe2x80x9d brand. One (or two) metal cans are set in an aperture(s) in the shelf provided and disposed below the chafing dish. Such means of heating chafing dishes are typical and of long-standing manufacture by a number of different manufacturers.
However, this method of heating with metal cans of flammable fuel has several problems for the food preparer and the consumer. The problems with this approach include: frequent odor from the burning fuel is unappetizing; the fuel cans make it difficult to control the temperature of the chafing dish; smoke and heat is generated; it is difficult to know when the metal can is about to deplete fuel and food becomes cold; the positioning of the heat source in two fixed locations in the shelf apertures provided causes the concentration of the heat in two places under the chafing dish, producing a discoloration and distortion of the chafing dish; the heat transfer from the fuel in the metal can to the chafing dish is uneven on the bottom of the chafing dish; the metal cans with flammable fuel are expensive to operate versus an electric source; and, the fuel in the cans presents a fire hazard in many environments.
There have been attempts to address the drawbacks to the above-described method of heating a chafing dish. For example, some chafing dish manufacturers have designed into their chafing dish an electric heating source that is integral and fixed to the bottom of a chafing dish. This approach has the disadvantage of being costly to manufacture, is not removable and thus is not universally applicable. It can also present a problem when cleaning or submerging the chafing dish in water for cleaning.
Another attempt to address the problem is with a removable electric heater with power cord that must be held fast to the bottom of a chafing dish by the addition of opposing welded shelf brackets to the underside of a chafing dish that will accept a particular type of electric chafing dish heater. A popular model of this type is the xe2x80x9cStegoxe2x80x9d heater. The problem with this approachis the chafing dish manufacturer must modify his chafing dishes with two opposing welded brackets especially designed just to hold the xe2x80x9cStegoxe2x80x9d heater. This increases costs and inventory, and chafing dishes made with the two opposing welded brackets cannot use the heater, so food service operators must maintain separate inventory of chafing dishes to accommodate this type of electric heater.
Another attempt to overcome the drawbacks of metal fuel cans is an electric heater that fits into the aperture of the shelf provided for acceptance of metal fuel cans disposed below the chafing dish. An example of this type of the model made by the Vollrath Company of Wisconsin. This electric heater for chafing dishes has the disadvantage of requiring two electric heaters to provide the heat transfer necessary for attaining the food warming temperature desired, and such electric heaters are positioned at two fixed location under the chafing dish thereby promoting excessive heat at these locations and promoting distortion of the chafing dish, and this approach does not apply the heat required evenly across the bottom of the chafing dish, and since this approach requires two heat sources, it can be more expensive to purchase and operate.
Other similar attempts have been made to address the drawbacks of metal fuel cans by various manufacturers in the U.S. and Japan, but all such known methods use designs that rely on the shelf support disposed below the chafing dish.
One embodiment of the invention is an electric heater for a chafing dish that includes a chafing dish, a chafing pan, or a chafing dish, with a circumscribed top flat band on edge for suspending the chafing dish with a shelf disposed below, whereby the electric heater is suspended by two hanging assemblies, each with an elastic component for assuring the electric heater is contiguous against the bottom of the heater.
Another embodiment of the invention is the two hanging assemblies are held fast to the circumscribed top flat band on edge by a bent and curving device that includes an elastic component. The hanging assemblies are sized so as to maintain the electric heater for a chafing dish next to and contiguous with the underside of the chafing dish.
Another embodiment of the invention is the electric heater is manufactured with an element in a conductive metal housing made of a refractory pad with serpentine looped nichrome wire to provide a very uniform and coherent heat distribution across the electric heater and for effective and even heat transfer to the underside of the chafing dish.